Letters To The Editor

Why did Newport News City Council host a public hearing session for the community?

I assumed, along with hundreds of others, that they wanted to hear what their constituents wanted to include in our city budget.

I watched as speaker after speaker approached the podium to request that full funding be made for our school system's requested budget.

Unfortunately, all those people may as well have been talking to a brick wall. Judging by the speech that our mayor had prepared, the decision had already been made.

Citizens gave up an evening, wrote impassioned speeches and braved TV cameras all to no avail. I'm sure no one expected that not one council member could be swayed.

One has to wonder about the purpose of this so- called "public session?" What did our council need to hear? Everyone who spoke was requesting "full funding." What was the magic word that would have changed their minds?

Mayor Joe Frank mentioned that no one offered to pay higher taxes for these expenditures. I would gladly pay an increase in taxes if it were earmarked to fully fund education.

Level funding for three years is unacceptable. Give the public some credit. We know that the School Board's budget is fiscally responsible. Pay now or pay later, Newport News.

Eventually, expecting our educators to do more with less year after year could be the straw that breaks the camel's back. The Newport News school system needs this money for the tools to educate the students. Save your breath citizens, the next public hearing" where our voices will be heard will be in the next election. Someone will listen then.

Jean Farrar

Newport News

Confederate history

Statements by State NAACP Director Salim Khalfani regarding Gov. Gilmore's proclaiming April "Confederate History Month," gave the impression of an intolerant organization.

The NAACP leadership stands for diversity and tolerance while being divisive and intolerant to other citizens of the Commonwealth.

Khalfani and the NAACP should encourage the study and understanding of all American history. There is much more than Black History Month.

He would discover that:

* Africans brought to North America were enslaved under the laws of England and the United States of America.

* The states that left the union and formed the Confederate States of America forced the issue of the rights of individual states to choose a different future than the individual states that remained in the union. Without the rise of the Confederate States of America and its defeat in the Civil War (not the Civil Rights war that came later), slavery would have continued to exist in the United States for many years after 1865.

There are plenty of reasons for all Virginia Citizens to recognize Confederate History Month.

Thom Dozier

Hampton

Cooler workplace

The May 16 article, "Smithfield kill-floor workers call heat a danger" is incomplete at best and blatant yellow journalism at worst.

As the president of Teamsters Local Union No. 822, I am entrusted to work for and secure the highest possible working conditions and benefits for the members - including the kill floor workers at Gwaltney. Your article not only questioned the accuracy of my statements, but also challenged the integrity of our union and me. I take extreme exception and offense.

The Local Union and I have been accused of being "closely aligned with management at the expense of the workers."

There was no mention of the air-conditioned locker room near the kill floor that I persuaded the company to install. Conditions on any kill floor at a meat processing plant are intrinsically deplorable.

The union's position is that these workers are underpaid and in many instances overworked. This is why our Local negotiated increased bidding rights for employees wishing to transfer to other departments and "fair day's work for fair day's pay" language in the last contract (1997).

This is why I met with the president of Gwaltney in 1996 concerning these issues and secured the increased use of fans and air-conditioning where possible.

Not one grievance has been filed to the union concerning this issue.

David A. Vinson, president,

Teamsters Local 822

Norfolk

Military health care

I read that Congress is capping the amount of money the budget can allocate for military health care. I also know that a great many enlisted men were told that they would have guaranteed health care for the rest of their natural lives. Now, by capping the budget, Congress is taking that guarantee away.

How can that possibly be right? Enlisted men and women in the military deserve something for the great sacrifices they make and are willing to make in order to serve their country; the most important being that of their own lives.

The least the country can do for these men and women in return is keep her promises. If the United States did not think she was capable of financing lifetime health care benefits for veterans, then she should not have promised them. Realizing that she may not have been able to now is way too late.